Shego on the Halo
by Happy1K1nob1
Summary: The master chief finds something while on a mission. What happens when he brings it along? If it doesn't make sense right away, I'll explain a few things to characters later.
1. The Structure

The structure

Disclaimer: I forgot to do this when I posted it, silly me, and this is actually my second time with this mistake. So, I'll say this once for the story, and let you get back to it. If you recognize it, chances are that I don't own it. I own these particular variations of such things and this particular plot, but the originals themselves? Nothin'.

For those of you who read HappyWonKinobi's works on tthfanfic . org , you may recognize this story. I've decided to copy my stuff from there to here in order to let more people enjoy them. You'll get the chapters of this one and two others faster from there (click the "Author" button and search HappyWonKinobi and you'll find me faster and more accurately than clicking "Search" and typing in the names of the stories) because I post them there first.

Back to the show!

* * *

"Chief?"

"What is it Cortana?" He asked as he reloaded his DMR.

"I'm detecting an anomaly. It seems to be an old Earth beacon."

The Master Chief paused. "Earth? How is that possible?"

"I don't know. It's ancient, but it works. I'm putting a nav point on it."

A small blue diamond appeared on his Heads Up Display with a number next to it: 200m. Whatever it was, it was human technology and should not have the chance to fall into Covenant hands, so he went straight for it. He had to make a few small detours, but in the end he reached a structure that looked more like a tree than whatever it was. It had a lot of organic material, but it definitely wasn't all vegetation. On the edge of his motion tracker there were a lot of red dots. Enemy units. Too much Covenant to be anything small.

He opened fire upon them and killed them all with little effort and slammed in a fresh clip as he waltzed up to the opening. He pressed himself against the edge and peeked around the edge. All of the occupants, Elite, Jackal, and Grunt, were conferring. He didn't question the opportunity to lob a grenade and take them out, only regretting slightly that one survived as he put it out of it's misery.

He casually walked in, snagging a few plasma grenades. There were a number of turrets lining the hall as he made his way through.

"They're unusually well-armed for such an objective." Cortana remarked. "I mean, wouldn't they have already collected it and left? Why stay when you can just rip it out of the ground and bring it with you?"

The entire structure shifted violently for a few seconds and he got buried under a slight avalanche. When it was over, John remarked casually, "Cortana, stop talking."

"Sorry."

Then he examined the particles from the avalanche. It had only lasted a second, but gave much food for thought. It was Covenant weaponry, through and through. And every single pistol, rifle, and shield was dead.

"What the hell is all this about?" She asked.

He stood, as he had no answers for her, then hesitated, then bent over.

"What are you doing?" She inquired curiously.

He shrugged as he put a shield, a pistol, and a rifle in pouches before continuing. He had no clue what he was doing or why, but this instinct he had had kept him alive and moving throughout the years, making things happen to him that only appear in dreams. Why question it now?

Then he came to a wall that opened itself as he passed it. It stayed open, instead of closing after he passed it, so he doubled back to it and went through it. Cortana thought about how odd it was that this structure, so penetrated by vegetation and ancient beyond belief, still contained enough power to direct them to their objective. And at the same time, she was apprehensive as to how it was directing them. If she'd had a physical body, she would shiver, and not for lack of heat.

At 50m away, a small, badly aimed explosion knocked him off his feet. It was a Hunter. He chucked his second frag grenade at it as he rolled away from its second blast, both of which blew harmlessly. He started shooting at it, catching it in the neck a few lucky times, before chucking a plasma grenade at it.

The grenade blew and the Hunter fell on its face, dead.

But human and AI did not relax. Hunters always hunt in pairs, never alone. He entered another door that magically opened itself up for him on his path towards the nav point. At 5m, he heard a loud click-clack sound, and jumped away from it.

It was the other Hunter, badly wounded, but still willing to fight to the last gooey orange drop.

It charged up the Fuel Rod Cannon welded to it's arm. He'd accidentally maneuvered himself into a spot that virtually guaranteed his death. Not like he'd get much choice on going out swinging or not.

Then all three were surprised when it just fizzled out.

All the bells and whistles available in his suit were going off at the same time, trying to rip apart his eardrums, but still clearly allowing the sounds of what sounded like Needler rounds exploding through to his brain. Then he felt his plasma grenades, all but one, pop like a cheap bubble pop effect, then watched the visible crystals in the Hunter's Fuel Rod Gun popping like Needler rounds or a cheap effect in an ancient Earth anime or cartoon. His shields were practically empty when a pneumatic *hiss* came to him, parts of a second before a large piece of metal flew faster than a MAC round through the room, crushing the Hunter like an overglorified bug.

He silently thanked whatever powers that had kept him alive and looked over at what had saved him. He dropped his DMR and Cortana was even speechless, if only for a half-minute (an eternity for an AI such as herself).

"It's a cryostasis chamber. Get close to it." She ordered, intent on scanning the large object.

He walked up to it, and life started to get a little weird. His HUD was completely disrupted, but it was almost like it was still there, in his mind. Like he was as interconnected to his suit at that moment as Cortana was. Ugh, that little burn will be nasty in the morning. How did he miss that? And how long ago did he last service his armor? There are so many things in here that should've been taken care of months ago!

Cortana was directing the suit's sensors at the beacon's location, which was on the cryo chamber. How could he tell that without her telling him?

"It's so ancient that it should've collapsed in on itself a century ago." He could hear her extremely clearly. Far more clearly than he should be able to. "It shouldn't have any power whatsoever, and yet, there's a power source in this thing that is still going, after who knows how long. In fact, it's getting stronger, like it wants attention. What am I talking about, it's an inanimate object. It doesn't have feelings."

Suddenly, it felt like something hit him, almost physically, but not. He stumbled back a bit and his HUD was back up. It felt like he was almost deaf, for some reason. But he could tell Cortana was getting mad. He backed off a bit more.

"What are you doing?" Her voice wasn't all that level, but seemingly calm at least.

"You're angry at an inanimate object." Sometimes, he has found that stating the obvious is a better idea than saying anything else or saying nothing.

And it seemed to work this time. She calmed down and gave him the order to come back for it after they had dealt with the current objective.

* * *

"Echo 418, comin' in for extraction of unknown technology." She reported to a dispatcher on the ship. Paperwork was so dumb in Parker's opinion, and she had developed a mindnumbing documentation system for these jobs to avoid as much paperwork as possible. Sure, you still had to file the flightplans, and a few descriptions, but her oral documentation covered everything else quite well for her.

She set down the Pelican to let out the marines and the Spartan riding with her to connect chains to the structure. There were places made for it all over the structure's body and the work went quick. Then they climbed aboard the Pelican to watch as the group of four Pelicans tried to pull it from the ground. They failed until a Longsword came to help. Then the bay doors on the Pelicans closed to keep in the atmosphere as they left the planet.

When they arrived back at the ship, they couldn't really get it past the hangar they landed it in. It was a lot bigger than the Longsword, and that thing barely fits in and out of the bay as it is.

In the end, they just converted the bay into a science bay, leaving in many of the Warthogs and Pelicans as well as the Longsword, but basically put up a giant tent around it.

The outside was obviously a bulkhead designed to survive a reentry, maybe even several in quick succession. The dirt surrounding the bottom was tightly packed and held by a root system that baffled a few people as to why it would do that, and the roots themselves contained traces of compounds and radiation that they couldn't replicate or even identify.

The tree had grown around the structure itself, even going so far as to incorporate it as a part of it's very being. Roots replaced wires effectively in places. There were random objects here and there, but at least most of the Covenant had been cleared out. There were a lot more bodies in there that had died of odd wounds or mysterious causes than anyone would've guessed.

And that cryostasis chamber? Well, nobody can figure that out.

* * *

A month after they had discovered the structure's outermost chambers, they tried entering an inner chamber and got blasted for their efforts. Two turrets had popped out of nowhere and blasted them, stunning them with a set of severe stabbing pains to the small intestines that took an hour to straighten out in the sick bay. That afternoon, Cortana was really moody. She kept snapping at people for random things, especially the small stuff. Eventually the captain came up to her and ignored her thinly veiled insult that served for the day's greeting. "Cortana, what's going on ?"

She considered getting really angry at him for a few seconds, then gave up and sighed. "I don't actually know. I've just been really absent-minded. Really."

"And do you know why?"

She struggled for a second, fidgeted, then mumbled out, "I don't know."

"Then tell me what's on your mind and I'll know for you." He said gently. He'd been known to be a good psychiatrist back on Earth, but no one had considered it was a big part of the reason why he was so good at being a leader. He used his talent for being a good psychiatrist (one of the best in fact) as a way to keep his soldiers sharp, capable, and ready to fight the enemy instead of each other. Not to mention sane.

She looked around a bit, like a person looking for a way out, then said, "It's the tech we acquired. Whenever we've done anything invasive, like trying to gain access to many of the rooms or to open the cryo chamber by force, it retaliates. Especially the cryo chamber. The only thing like that we've managed to do without an attack is remove the chamber and put it into cryo 2. And one other thing, sir."

"What is it?"

"The chamber itself, it doesn't have a power source."

"How is that possible? It has plenty of power to-"

"That's just it. The power isn't coming from any sort of pack or generator to keep the bioform alive. The power is being extracted from the bioform. It's barbaric. And the power levels, along with the power itself, just," She struggled for the right words for a moment, "Feels wrong. Like it's not supposed to exist."

He had a very worried look on his face, but Cortana never noticed.

"But no matter how hard I try, I can't bring myself to put out the order to destroy it, even if the only thing that might work is a nuclear blast or a slipspace rupture. It's like there's this need to protect it."

Then her attention was pulled back to reality as a beep interrupted her. "Sir, you're not gonna believe what I just found."

* * *

"There's this keypad at the bottom with an access number. I'd assumed the numbers were just random symbols because of how they were written backwards, but I'm putting them in now to see what happens." As Corporal PT Jock pushed the buttons 7-4-3-4-5, he prayed that it wasn't some sort of practical joke or authorization to self-destruct. It wouldn't be the first time he'd done something like this and blown up.

Well, it would be here in real life.

When compressed air blew out pneumatically he smiled. It hadn't blown up. He went to what could be assumed to be the front and watched in awe as it opened. He never heard Cortana yelling at him that the locator beacon (which was still running) had suddenly turned off and the energy levels were spiking to potentially dangerous levels, rather like a bomb going through the authorization process to blow.

And then it opened.

And then a fist materialized out of the mist millimeters from his face going fast enough.

He flew back, and was later unsure if he'd been out cold before or after he hit the wall.

Then the fist pulled back and a tall form stepped out. It moved too fast for Cortana to get a good look at it until it stopped minutes later, seconds before it just fell over as if dead. It was a human woman, with green flesh and black hair. Then life went on like it was on automatic, nothing getting through to Cortana's mind, until the green-skinned woman woke up again.

* * *

A/N: Please read and review. And if things don't make sense to you yet, that's because I haven't gotten far enough in the story to start explaining things. Don't worry about it for now.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

She jumped out and whipped her head around, taking in her surroundings, before running to the guy she'd knocked out and stealing his gun. Then she ran at the door and punched. When it only dented, she got irritated at it and slammed the keypad next to it. She forced the slightly open door open like one might force certain stubborn elevator doors and kept running. There were alarms blaring, but she just ignored them. It didn't take much effort because it was second nature by now.

A guard showed up with an assault rifle. Where was she, the evil version of beyond maximum security? And what's even worse is that the guy stupidly shouted "Stop!" or "Halt!" or something like he actually expected her to do so. She laughed at him and punched him in the face while he peed his pants.

She made a few turns before greeting another guard with a flying half-filled ammo clip to the face.

Another two turns, another two guards. She shot one in the foot and tackled the other in the gut. She got up fast and noticed a window, which she immediately tried to jump out of.

She just bounced right off of it. 'Must be at least a foot thick!' She thought to herself (in between a few swearwords here and there). She stood up and was about to try again when she noticed what was on the other side of it.

She came up to it calmly and set her elbows on where the window sill was (if it could be called that), face filled with awe. She was only marginally aware of the gathering crowd of guards and guns. All that mattered right now was those beautiful stars.

When someone nudged her, she grabbed, twisted, and punched, all in one fluid motion and without looking away from the view.

When someone else came up close to her, she pointed the stolen pistol at where the head should be. When all they did was stand there she stopped aiming it and set her head on that hand as if the pistol didn't exist. After a minute, she looked at him and said, "You're really tall, you know?"

And then she fainted.

* * *

Nobody moved for a moment. Nobody knew how to come to terms with what just happened, or what to do about it.

Except the green woman.

Snore quietly enough that almost no one heard while everyone else figured out what to do.

An hour later, the captain came to the scene and gently told some marines to bring the wounded to sick bay, and gently lifted the woman from the floor with both hands and brought her to a room in the living quarters, telling Cortana to let her wake up alone, notifying him when it was time. He hadn't raised his voice throughout the entire ordeal, keeping his tone gentle, like he was dealing with his family back home. Once again, people were reminded of the man's ability to take control of the most bewildering or crazy / messed up situation and make it straight again, and when it hit them exactly what happened from beginning to end, they all dropped jaws, with some fainting in awe of their captain, but all filled with pride and joy to be serving with such a great man.


	3. Curiosity and just a little bit of death

Curiosity and just a little bit of death

"Come one! I just want to do one more test and then-"

"Hell no! I ain't getting another fucking needle poked into me! I mean ittt-" *stick* *thud*

"I'm sorry, but it was for your own good."

* * *

She sat up, two emotions fighting for control of her throat. Unspeakable rage and near-blinding panic.

Come on girl! Deep breath. You can do this, deep breath. Deep breath. Focus on yourself for now. Don't focus on what has happened, where you are, or, might be. And definitely not on the future!

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

In through the nose and out through the mouth.

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

"Are you alright?"

"HOLYSHIT!" She jumped. And slammed into a wall before the floor. Calm down. Mutter! "Oh, you stupid little girl. It's just a PA." Calm down little woman! Alright, nothing makes sense, I'll admit. Label! It's been a good idea before after all.

As her breathing slowed marginally, the woman opened her emerald green eyes, blinking away the spots before scanning the room; sort of pointing at a few things as she muttered.

"What are you doing?" The woman on the PA asked.

"She jumped, slamming into the wall again. "God dammit! Would you stop that! GOD! I'm trying to calm down here and you're not helping!"

"Sorry." The answer was a little sheepish.

Stop lashing out! Focus. In, out. In, out. In, out. Alright, now focus on yourself. Are you in bad shape? Does everything work properly? Test it and find out. Go through the list she gave you after that ginormous brain surgery last year.

Can you flex your fingers? Thumb, index, middle, ring, pinkies; Check, both counts for all 5.

Toes? Yep, I can feel them.

Stand. ... Well, I can stand, well lean against the wall anyways. Can I keep my balance while standing? She leaned forward, then back, still hyperventilating a bit. Nope. Not yet anyways. Can I slide down slowly? Yep. Ok, leg bones... All lower leg bones intact. Kneecaps? Check.

Femurs? So far so good. Not that it'll do any good if I can't keep my balance just yet.

Feet? She murmured appreciatively. In good shoes.

Hands? Nothing too bad. Mostly just bruises on the knuckles.

Neck? Mm-hmmm. No vasculitis. That's good.

Head? Oh, damn! DAMN! Shouldn'a checked.

Ok, how's my torso (if those bedamned spots will let me make clear judgment). Nothing broken. A bruise where I got sloppy last week. Must've fallen on it.

All in all, not bad. Coulda been a lot worse.

Oh! How did I forget my eyesight?

She reopened her eyes, properly and for more than a few seconds this time.

Now, that little plank in the middle of the wall right there, is that a bed? It's got what looks like a pillow and a blanket.

Risk it? Naw. I like my wall just fine right now. Wait, is it a wall?

Hey! Focus! Stop asking questions! And for God's sake, stop hyperventilating! Sooner you're calm, the sooner you get answers.

After a few minutes, her breathing and heart rates were almost back to normal. She stood up, then ventured away from the wall. "Ok, sooo... this is new." She walked around for a bit, nodding her head slightly. Then she stopped. "I just realized, I forgot to check for spinal damage and-"

"Um, there was a little bruising along your spine and some irreversible damage near your tailbone."

She slipped, starting to panic again, and fell on her arse.

"Oh! Shoot! Sorry, I shouldn't have said a word."

She forced herself to stop backing up. After all, it would only follow her. She took a deep, shaky breath and said, "Just tell me, are you human?"

"Not, really. I-"

"Awwww, great!" She stood up, suddenly not panicky at all. Just annoyed. "Just Effin' Great! Here I am, trapped in a small room without any sort of lifeline to sanity, and acting like a lunatic! Why not just kill me now! Am I not good enough to be shot by humans? No, that would be too much to ask for. The least you could do is take my sanity!"

"Um, who are you talking to?"

"You and God. Mostly God."

"I notice you're not hyperventilating anymore."

"Yeah, I just don't care anymore."

'That sounds more like anger than apathy.' The voice thought to itself. "What were you doing earlier?"

"Is this an interrogation?" She asked flatly.

"No, just curious."

"I was labeling the furniture. Then I was checking for brain damage, which I didn't finish." She stopped talking and angled her head. "You know, you're pretty good at imitating a human female's voice."

"Well, I was based on a human mind-"

"You're an AI?" She plunked to her arse limply, stunned. "I'm doomed. That's all there is for it. I'm either doomed or already dead and in hell."

"Hunh?"

"My personal Hell: Trapped in a hospital room with only an AI for 'company', I'm still green but without the cool parts, without any sort of lifeline to sanity, and I'm gibbering like an idiot with my brothers pestering me without letup." She let her head fall to a side. "Where are my brothers anyway? I mean, I'm obviously in a hospital room and they always know when I'm in a hospital. No matter how badly I'm hurt, I'm not in a hospital five seconds before they find me, those bastards, even when I specifically leave them off the 'next of kin' list."

Before the AI could answer, there was a minor explosion very close by.

From her spot sprawled on the floor, she shouted, "Oh, and I forgot to mention PEOPLE TRYING TO BLOW ME UP!" She stood angrily and ran at the now open door.

She ran through the door, and straight into an Elite.

"What the F-" She began as he swung at her screaming "Demon!"

* * *

The blow connected solidly and the green woman crumpled to the deck, lifeless, as the Elite moved on, completely remorseless. Even more than that, he was joyous to have killed a demon before she'd had the chance to react. He chuckled to himself. When he got home, he'd be praised, and possibly even given his own ship to command.

Cortana didn't have the time to be distracted by the woman's death. A subroutine mourned the loss of all the potential information, but it was rather small. She instead focused on the rest of the Covenant on board. She assigned Fire Teams to each group of Covenant in the hope they'd be able to repel borders, but one by one they were cut down. The groups were darn small and extremely skilled, mostly comprised of Zealot class Elites like the one who'd killed the green woman.

What could be so important that they'd send so many Zealots?

Cortana flicked her electronic gaze to the group in the brig and blinked. They were all dead.

And the woman wasn't in there.

Somewhere in the ship she heard a girly "Hey there." right before a pistol shot. She hadn't seen it happen. She wondered aloud, "What's going on?"

Blind spots started appearing all over the ship. The cameras next to the blind spots showed that the lights went out there as well. The appearances and disappearances of the blind spots were completely unpredictable, but often left behind dead groups of Covenant. Some of the microphones caught the sounds of bullets or even the occasional "Demon!"

Then a blind spot covered the Fire Team Charlie. "Chief! Chief!"

She received only static from him until the blind spot disappeared.

"Cortana! What happened?" John-117 asked.

"You tell me." Cortana shot back.

"The lights cut out, and there was gunfire around the corner. When we got there, the lights  
were back on and there were no living enemy units."

Her attention was pulled to the shots and cries of pain audible on the bridge. "Get to the bridge!" She yelled to the Chief.

"But-"

"Now!" She frantically tried to store herself somewhere else before she was yanked. She failed, but subroutines recorded everything that transpired after that.

* * *

"You know, one of the biggest advantages of being dead is that no one expects you to do this." The green woman rounded the corner and slammed a fist into an invisible Elite, killing it instantly and revealing it. She sidestepped a floating blue line of energy that swung at her and jumped to spin kick the head of the Elite holding the sword. One-shot-kill again.

6 shots from 3 spots rang out, impacting only once on her shoulder. She ignored the burning skin and hit the plasma rifle up, where it was in the perfect position to make the Elite kill himself out of delayed reaction.

Then turret fire slammed her with plasma and she flew out of the bridge and into a wall. An Elite dropped his camo and traipsed up to her confidently. A little too confidently as he was shot in the head by the Master Chief.

Who was then subsequently hit in the head by the cloaked leader holding the turret.

It laughed as it decloaked and pointed its weapon at the woman.

She chuckled and struggled to stand against the wall. "You got a chance to live, pretty boy. And that's to give up, give it back, and leave while I allow it."

The Elite chuckled to himself. "Say goodnight, Demon." He said in almost fluent English. There was a loud click. "Hunh?" He looked at his weapon like it had just grown a self-aware arm.

She grinned. "Was hopin' you'd say that." She pushed off the wall in a tackle to get him off balance, rolled into a standing position, ran after him, and made a grabbing motion above his chest. A sparkle came with her fist as she turned around, whirlwinding first her second fist into him, then the first one carrying the sparkle. On that second hit, a small explosion knocked him off his feet and zapped him across the room.

She went towards him, breathing heavily, and collapsing halfway there. She crawled over to him, picked up the chip in which Cortana was stored, and put it back into the slot saying, "Wake me up when it doesn't hurt." as she passed out, blissfully unaware of all her burns, aches, and pains.

* * *

A/N: I've gotta ask if the fight was intelligible to you guys. Please, comment on it, and on every other part of the story you wish. Oh, and names for people, places, and chapters are just as appreciated as any type of comment.


	4. Shego wakes up and John gets a hug

Shego wakes up again and John gets a hug

'

When she awoke, all clad in new bandages and fresh clothes, the first thing she saw was the ceiling.

The second thing was the Master Chief, out of his armor (which was getting serviced).

She smiled tremblingly and gave him an inescapable hug (not that he tried to get away as this wasn't something he'd been trained for).

After a minute, she let go, showing the tears on her face. "Sorry, it's just that I've had a bit of a hard week, and it's good to see a properly human face."

"That's nice." Cortanna said.

She jumped and pressed herself against him, before pulling away, disgusted with herself. "What am I doing? I'm not a helpless child." She turned around and saw the glowing purple figure standing only a handsbreadth tall on her bed. "Well, all considered, things could be worse." She sat down on the bed. "Sooooo, you wanna help me fill in the blanks?"

"We were hoping you could."

She smiled. "Well, if I don't know what you know, then I don't know what blanks to fill, so could you give me some information?"

"Information about what?"

"I could do with information about, well about anything really. So, why don't we start with the generalities and eventually move to the specifics?" She tried out a small 'puppy dog' look, just for the heck of it.

Cortanna smiled at it. "Well, the human race has been fighting a war with an enemy that is vastly more powerful and outnumbers us by a five to one ratio."

The green woman looked thoughtful for a moment. "Kinda sounds like your average 'Cowboys Vs. Indians' scenario. Or like something out of Star Wars." She said quietly. Then she returned her attention to Cortanna and said, "Sorry, please continue."

"They're called the Covenant, and they are a group of races that have declared us to be an offense to their deities and so have been trying to exterminate us ever since first contact." She gave the woman a wry smile as she said, "Surprisingly enough, they haven't had too much success."

The woman gave a small laugh and a mirroring smile of wryness. "Never mess with the human race." She said sagely.

"Yes, though due to their technological head on us, it's pretty easy for them to kill us. I have no clue why we haven't been exterminated, other than the Cole Protocol."

"What's that?" She asked.

Mentally, she cursed herself for assuming. She'd forgotten the woman had been in cryosleep for a lot longer than the war had been going on. "The Cole Protocol: A survival protocol created by Admiral Preston Cole. In summary, under no circumstances are civilian or UNSC ships fleeing Covenant assault are to set escape courses towards the UNSC core worlds, and all things with information pertaining to the location of Earth, her colonies, or any defenses are to be wiped or destroyed should the risk of being captured become very likely. That especially includes all constructs and cyborgs, like me and the Master Chief here."

She could see the connection between the special inclusion and keeping alive on the woman's face, but she didn't notice the question until it came out.

"Can you dumb it down a little for me? I'm not a genius, so I won't make the connection unless you spell it out for me."

She was a little taken aback, but tried her best anyway. After a moment, she came up with this. "A construct is typically something digital or holographic to represent something, or a program of some sort, often self-sentient. I'm a construct. Cyborgs are cybernetically enhanced humans."

"Okay, I get that. But, can you give me an example of a construct according to common things in my time?"

She thought a moment. "A digitized storage unit. Today we have holographic storage to retain data and commands in nonphysical consoles."

"Uh, huh." Nodding to show that she had at least rudimentary understanding. "So, when 'dit get created?"

Cortanna was thrown off balance by the question. "Hunh?"

"The Cole Protocol. When was it created?"

"Oh, after several colonies on the outer edge of the known galaxy were taken out by the Covenant. He decided that destruction of any intelligence we had was better than having Earth overrun by Covenant in the process of being wiped out."

"Ah." She smiled in appreciation of the idea. "Smart move."

She yawned suddenly, and then a thought struck her as she moved to put her head on the pillow. She touched her wrist and looked a little disappointed. "Quick question, how long was I out?"

"After you single-handedly saved me?"

"Oh, you were on that chip?" Cortanna nodded. "Wow. I knew whatever it was was important, but not that it was you. Yeah, after that."

"You were unconscious for 2 weeks."

The green skinned woman nodded tiredly. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I gotta take another nap, and once I fall asleep, I'm out like a light." She put an odd smile on her face and repositioned herself on her side. "Wake me up for breakfast, 'k?" She asked sleepily.

Cortanna was saved from answering because Shego was already asleep.

* * *

When she woke up again, she just sat there, staring at the dark ceiling. She sighed. Nothing made sense, especially her recent past. It's just too damn chaotic. Images mostly, in fact, too much whirlpool of color to figure out. The best she could do at the moment was that an explosion occurred pretty darn close, then there was a few hallways, then Kimmie's worried face. She'd tried to cover it up with a warm smile, but failed pretty miserably. She'd just been too darn oddly exhausted to point it out.

Then cold.

Then nothing.

Then she was running through GJ, or something. Guys with guns? She'd laughed in their faces and knocked their lights out. Simple.

Then that window. Not so simple. It was an amazing view, but wasn't the best thing for her sanity.

On the other, weirder hand, getting the life knocked out of her had been.

Life's funny that way, isn't it?

Yeah, it was.


	5. Almost time for breakfast

Almost time for breakfast

Suddenly it was very bright and she groaned. She just wanted to get back to sleep.

She should be so lucky.

Instead, when she turned over to fall back asleep, she fell off the bed. She groaned grumpily when she hit the floor, and gave in, slowly coming to a sitting position.

"Oh, you're awake."

She was surprised by the voice, but she didn't really react. Living with Drakken for four years had taught her to adapt fast if she wanted to stay employed. Or at least alive.

And besides, from what she'd seen so far, the purple girl was like a cross between a few of Kimmie's friends and Drakken, but cuter and actually intelligent.

She yawned and smacked her lips. "I've got a question: do you blow yourself up much?" Time to play the 'Let's guess at the reaction' game! What fun!

"What? No. Why?" Flustered. Definitely flustered. No contest there. Or at least surprised and confused, which is actually the same thing.

She grinned and chuckled. "Thanks, I needed that." Thanks to the complete surprise in Purple's voice, she was awake and much more happy. She stood and stretched. "So, what's up?"

"Um, you told me to wake you up for breakfast."

"Yep. So direct me to food."

"Um..." She was hesitating to keep her inside the room.

Shego smiled at that. "Look, I have listened to, and dealt with, everything any quack doctor or worried relative could throw at me. And more than that, I'm hungry because I've gone for God knows how long without food. I could really use a cup of coffee and a cheeseburger right about now." When the AI didn't respond, she said, "Capisce?"

There was only one possible thing going through the AI's head: possible ways to continue the conversation and possibly manipulation avenues. Due to the lack of blackmail material and such, there really was only one possibility. Two if you include lying. Not gonna fall for that, though.

The door opened.

"Thank you. To direct me, just make panels along the path light up. And don't just put me in a circle or send me to the wrong place, got that?" She started walking.

If the AI'd had a body, she'd be audibly gulping right now.

All things considered (she'd saved and intimidated an AI, hugged a very large man, interrogated the two of them while being interrogated, and just killed a bunch of creatures after suffering a massive head trauma), this was shaping up to be a good day.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, I know, it's so short. But, it's better than nothing at times, and I don't want to get too far ahead before I have it posted properly on tthfanfic . org.

So I guess you'll just have to wait. *Evil Snicker*


	6. Pain makes conversation a little hard

Pain makes conversation a little difficult, right?

"So this is it, hunh?" the green woman whistled appreciatively. The mess hall in question was definitely whistle-worthy. After all, it had to be big enough to house and feed the entire ship's compliment at mealtimes. She leaned against the wall near the door, watching for a minute, then expertly making her way over to the lunch lines, which were just starting up for the upcoming meal. She piled a plate with food, then made her way over to a small secluded corner and sat on the floor, happily eating her food. And then a girl in pink armor came up to her and shouted "WAKE UP!" right in her ear before letting her shotgun go off in her ear.

* * *

Shego sat up with a small yell of surprise. She took a moment to calm down, slowing her breath until she had calmed down enough to figure out what the heck was going on. When the panic had left, taking the adrenaline with it, her head started to hurt, and she put her hand to it. Instead of hair, she felt cloth. Odd. She pressed, and it felt slightly squishy. Blood on the bandage, but it hasn't dried yet, and yet the wound has healed down to a slight bruising, otherwise it would hurt more. Curiouser and curiouser. Especially since her skin was a pale peach. It should be a deep green, like it had been for the past, I don't know, twenty-five years? Completely weird.

A female voice spoke in her head. "She's awake."

She jumped. Not much, but she did. She'd just had the weirdest dream ever, and right now, reality wasn't quite conforming to certain known rules. With her luck, _this _was the dream and the other side was reality, which would suuuuck.

She shook her head, trying to clear the fogginess from her thoughts and vision, giving up after a few minutes. She sighed and lowered herself onto the bed again.

Some time passed and the door to her room opened, letting in the sounds of people walking by, and a few walking in. She knew what was about to happen. "I know what you're probably here about, so, why don't we just skip to the part where we find out what we know?" She tried to keep the pain out of her voice, but wasn't completely successful.

"What's your name?" A kind voice asked. From the voice, he's probably white, and with a family. Possibly the local psychologist, though it didn't make as much sense as a leader or specially chosen liaison would.

"I, I go by Shego." She said. "I haven't exactly, used my name in a while."

"You've forgotten your own name?" He asked, incredulous.

"Sort of. The pain isn't exactly helping my memory." She grunted again as the pain spiked. No discernible pattern to it yet. "Where am I?"

"You're in the medical bay of the UNSC _Defiant Vengeance_." The kind voice said. "I'm Captain Parker Michaelson." That would make sense.

She quirked her mouth into a small smile. "Nice names."

"I always thought so." Parker said. "Though, something's been bothering me. Weren't you green an hour ago?"

"That, I can't tell you, as I didn't see. I'm supposed to be green, but I'm not for some reason." Don't even think about thinking it. Soon as you do, it'll come rushing right back. "It's never happened to me before."

"The lack of green?"

She nodded. "So, who's guarding you?"

"It's only you and me in here." He said.

She smirked. "Liar." She said. She didn't put much heat into her voice. "One, I'm not an idiot. If I were you, or your head of security, I would insist upon it. After said prisoner took out 4 guards in quick succession without much effort, even I would be a little cautious."

"She's good." A gruff male voice whispered. Much deeper, and with a rumble of authority in it. Therefore, black and probably a squadron leader of some sort.

"It was actually 5 marines." Parker said, gently correcting her amount.

She raised her eyebrows. "Marines?" She paused, assumed he'd nodded, and said, "Wow." She nodded to herself and forced herself back on topic. "Two, while I couldn't see, I could hear, and I heard a few too many steps to be just one person, even including the group walking just outside the door. And besides, I'm betting that the tall guy's curious about me." 'Hell, _I'm_ curious about me!' she thought to herself.

"So is Cortana, the ship's AI."

"So that purple figure that I talked to, that wasn't just a hallucination or a dream."

"How'd you know she was purple?"

She raised her eyebrows. "So, I did imagine her?"

"Well," the female voice from earlier said. "You didn't imagine telling me about your brothers before getting hit on the head, hard."

"So, were you on that chip that I stuck into that pole?"

"Yes. How'd you know?"

"It, it was in my dream." Shego said it hesitantly. "We talked about a lot of things in my dream."

"Like what?"

"Like how I've been unconscious for 2 weeks, though that's probably wrong if I still have a bandage on my head. Then there's the Cole Protocol, how it was made to keep the Covenant away from Earth, and bastions of the human race. The definitions of the terms 'Construct' and 'Cyborg'. Though, one thing about that I don't- never mind."

"What is it?" Cortana asked.

"I was going to say that I don't get why cyborgs would get priority with the constructs, but I figured it out. Being enhanced, a cyborg will be a much more capable soldier, and especially useful in propaganda and the attempts to win the war. The people need their idols. They need their hope. Without hope, we'll lose without a fight." 'There's no pain.' She marveled at it for the split second that she had pain-free before pain came rushing back to her, and she sucked in a huge breath.

"Her adrenaline levels are spiking." Cortana said.

"Yeah, no shit!" Shego yelled at her, gritting her teeth from the pain.

And suddenly, the world went white, and Shego knew no more.

* * *

A/N: I hope you like the different direction I decided to take it. Please tell me what you think of it. Also, if you think of a better chapter name, I'm probably open to it.


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